The Fixer
The Fixer by Jennifer Lynn Barnes takes the main character, Tess, on a nail biting journey. She had to move in with her sister because her grandpa, who had been taking care of her, became ill, and Ivy, her sister, takes her in. Ivy works for the President and is known as the number one fixer. Tess goes to Hardwicke High School and that is how she involuntarily finds herself solving a murder. Ivy repeatedly advises and tells her to stay out of the murder case, but Tess does not listen. Tess finds herself in a life or death situation: she can sit there and let someone get killed, or she can choose to save them. In order to save the person she has to talk to a possible enemy who turns out to be someone very important in her life, and Ivy was not happy at all with her choice.
The Fixer starts off calmly, then Tess moves in with Ivy and meets Vivvie and everything picks up from there.Vivvie becomes Tess’s friend the moment Tess steps foot in Hardwicke. Vivvie helped Tess in the murder mystery and is an important character in the book. Ivy is also important  because without Ivy, Tess cannot get far in discovering who was the murderer. There is a big plot twist (I won’t give it away) that involves Ivy and Tess which changes the meaning of the story.
The Fixer, told in first person, is great because every page has something interesting, which makes it hard to stop reading. Throughout the book, readers can find themselves predicting what comes next. There are several points that involve conflict and drama, making it fun to read. It is easy to follow because the author provides very good detail which helps the reader imagine what the characters look like and the setting of places. You can get a feel of what the character feels, like for example the line, “My grip on my pencil tightened”, you can tell and feel the character is feeling angry, in this case Tess gets angry because a teacher is picking on a student.
Several characters are introduced in the book and each one of them has a part in solving the mystery. They are mostly children of people working for or with the president. Some characters appear in the beginning and disappear till the end of the book. You never really know what they mean to Tess or what their relationship is really like, they may seem as friends but events  occur that question that. Tess and Asher seem to not get along at first but then Asher is always there for Tess and helps her when he can. Asher gets on Tess’s nerves all the time.  He makes The Fixer feel somewhat like a romance drama novel.
I definitely recommend this book to anyone. There is enough in the book for people to be interested in it. You will find yourself turning page after page, intrigued in the story. I would rate this book an 8 out of 10 because, although it is a great book, I personally was not happy with the ending, I feel like there could have been more, yet the ending does not affect the rest of the story. If you are looking for a book to read, whether it is for school or just for entertainment you should read The Fixer.